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| PROFILE (Continued)
Through training of farmers in sustainable agriculture, we have sought to expand the options and tools available to small-scale tenant farmers to build food security by increasing and diversifying their food production, breaking out of dependency on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and restoring local land and water resources. Our training has focused on imparting skills, processes and methodologies in organic rice farming, vegetable gardening, soil fertility management, dispersal and use of traditional seed varieties and natural pest management.
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Through social mobilization, we have organized farmers (both women and men) and women (in their own groups) to address their problems collectively through people's organizations (P0s). Once organized, these groups have acquired skills to design and implement development projects of their choosing. For example, organized women in Tabon have learned new skills in maintaining family health, expanded food production and processing, started small businesses, and secured local government support. In other organizing activities, farmers have worked together to increase the local water supply for irrigation, diversify crops, improve organic production of rice and vegetables, and enhance family health and nutrition.
Local governance is a three year old program of Developers that aims to increase people's democratic participation in local government units, particularly barangay councils. This has involved governance training for people's organizations (P0s) and barangay officials, facilitation of local government development planning using participatory methodologies, promoting active participation by P0s in barangay development, and accessing barangay funds for approved projects of farmer's and women's associations.
Our programs have reached 30 barangays covering eight towns of Aklan province. In these areas, we count 25 people's organizations (P0s) as local development partners with new or ongoing development projects in Aklan and Capiz. As of December 1999, roughly 180 women had organized themselves in small associations in connection with our women's empowerment program. As a result, 119 women had made strides forward in their self- esteem, leadership skills, nutrition, savings and income.
Since 1996, about 450 farmers have participated in PO organizing and adopted some mixture of organic farming practices through our sustainable agriculture training program. As a result, in 1999 these farmers had seen modest but sustained increases in rice yields, a return of local bio-diversity, more plentiful and nutritious food for their families, and, most of all, dramatic increases in savings from shedding the use of chemical inputs. Last year we also convened Barangay Development Planning workshop series. These planning workshops were facilitated by our staff but directed and shaped by community members, typically numbering 30 or more. Our host barangays are now implementing their citizens' priorities in development, including sustainable agriculture, livelihood projects run by local farmers' and women's groups, water supply, home nutrition improvement, and monitoring local interventions of the national government line agencies. |
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